Chapter 24
twenty-four
“Do you have hopes of expanding the amount of your acreage that’s harvested?
” Dahlia asked toward the end of their tour.
They’d started at the wildflower field, trampling farther than the wedding guests had gone so Emerson could show her his bee boxes.
From there they’d spent time in the barn and the pastures, where, with the sun shining and a recent orgasm in his system, Emerson felt almost fond of even the goats.
They had hit the main events then, the crop beds and the berry patch and his hopeful orchard, before making their way here, to cold storage and processing.
“Yes,” Emerson answered, “but honestly, I wouldn’t want to develop too much more.
The goal is always to use the land you already have ready more efficiently.
I hope to build out the main beds a bit more, and get all my greenhouses back in order.
With the relatively mild climate of the coast here, you could harvest produce almost all year long with properly managed greenhouses. ”
“And all these ready-to-go products you have, aside from your fresh produce”—Dahlia picked up a bottle of blueberry lavender syrup from the shelf—“do you have a website where folks can order these from?”
Emerson grimaced.
“That’s…also been a goal for a while, but when I started researching the best way to do it, I got overwhelmed at the administration of it all, while also having some environmental concerns about all the packaging and the energy used to ship long distance. But…”
Emerson cleared his throat. He’d felt comfortable throughout the tour, remarkably so, even with the knowledge that he was being filmed. But Dahlia really was wonderfully warm and open, so genuinely interested in the farm and everything Emerson had shared.
And having Luca there, trailing quietly behind them just out of the shot—maybe Emerson was showing off a bit for him, again. Maybe that was okay, having someone you wanted to show off for.
But now that Dahlia was asking about the things Jayden would’ve been so much better at, Emerson faltered.
How much of a financial boon would it have been for the farm, having mail order products ready to go for free advertisement by Dahlia Woodson?
Emerson had looked up her socials, her YouTube channel.
She had hundreds of thousands of followers.
But would he have enough supply to meet whatever demand that might’ve created anyway? Sometimes he struggled just to keep up with Liv’s orders for the IGA.
“Hopefully that’s on the horizon,” he managed.
“You mentioned your CSA, and also how you supply local markets and the grocery store in town here. Do you work with any local restaurants, as well?”
Wow. Dahlia was really choosing the end of the interview to go for the kill.
“That’s also always been part of the business plan,” Emerson said with what he hoped was a charmingly self-deprecating laugh, “but I’m already so busy with current customers, and I’ve struggled in knowing where to start with making those connections.
Luckily for our region, there are already a lot of local farms for our restaurants to work with, so I’m not sure if there’s a ton of space for a small farm like mine to fit in. ”
“I could maybe help with that.”
Emerson turned.
“Sorry,” Luca added, biting his lip and darting a look at Dahlia and then London. “Didn’t mean to interrupt the interview.”
“No, it’s okay!” Dahlia assured him. “We can always edit later if we need to. Go on.”
“Well.” Luca swallowed, casting another uncertain glance at London’s filming phone, seeming surprised that it was now directed at him, even though he was one who’d spoken up.
Emerson wanted to kiss him so badly that he had to bite the inside of his cheek to keep himself focused.
“My family owns and operates Yaeger Seafoods. We’re based here, out of Greyfin Bay, but we practice sustainable fishing all along the Pacific coast, mostly salmon.
Some steelhead sometimes from coastal rivers.
Our main customer base are local restaurants. ”
Luca’s gaze switched to Emerson.
“I’m sure we could connect you with some of the restaurants we work with, see what they might be able to offer.”
“That,” Dahlia said, swinging her focus from Luca to Emerson, “is awesome.”
“Yeah.” Emerson tried to take a deep breath.
He didn’t know why he hadn’t thought to look deeper into Luca’s family’s business before, hadn’t fully contemplated all the ways his mission and their mission were the same.
Hope was scratching at his airways again, more persistent this time.
Even if he knew it was easy to talk about these things, to throw ideas around like confetti, that so often things swirled into the gutter when it came to actual implementation.
But still. Still. “That is awesome,” he agreed.
He turned to look into London’s phone directly, trying to rally all the charm he could muster.
“So keep your eyes open for that, Greyfin Bay.”
Fifteen minutes later, Dahlia was hugging him, exuding her thanks.
“This was so special, getting some alone time here with you guys to cap off the weekend. This whole weekend was so special.” She squeezed her hands together as she stepped back, as if she just couldn’t stand it. “Thank you again for your time.”
“Thank you,” Emerson said. “It was special to me, too.”
London and Dahlia’s rental car had barely passed the line of trees at the edge of Emerson’s property when Luca turned to him and said, with feeling, “Let me help.”
Emerson gave him a wry look.
“Luca, it would be amazing if your family could help me make some connections with restaurants, but I don’t actually know if I’m ready to—”
“No, I mean—yes, I’ll do that, whenever you’re ready for it.
But I mean with the mail order stuff, so people could order your shelf-stable products online.
My sister Dagny, she’s a senior in college and she’s majoring in graphic design; she’s already overhauled Yaeger Seafoods’ website and made it so much better.
She could help me work on the farm’s so we could get ordering all set up, and I could figure out all the administrative parts of shipping.
I could be in charge of the whole thing, so it wouldn’t take up any of your time. ”
Color had risen in Luca’s cheeks as he’d talked, almost like he was…nervous, at the same time that his eyes were intensely serious.
Before Emerson could respond, Luca kept talking.
“And I’d like to help bring more events here.
Maybe not as big as this wedding was, but it was…
nice. Seeing people have an important moment here, you know?
Getting to be part of that. I could use my mom’s Greyfin Bay gossip tree to spread the word, let people know they can rent out the old barn, the wildflower field.
I know it’d be a learning curve, probably; I don’t have experience in event planning but I could do my best. I could…
ask Jayden for advice, maybe. But you’ve already put so much work into these spaces and—more people should see them.
But you wouldn’t have to stress over it; I could take it on. I’d…like to try.”
When Luca finally stopped, taking a deep breath, Emerson was at a loss for words.
“Okay,” he eventually managed.
“Yeah?” Luca asked, eyes brightening.
“Yeah.” Emerson laughed then, the hope crawling out of his lungs, hanging onto all of his internal organs like barnacles. “To all of it. You can help all you fucking want, Luca.”
And then Emerson kissed him, because he could, because the wedding was over, the interview was over; it was all over. He was free now to do only this.
Luca pulled back, color still high in his cheeks.
“Oh shit,” he said, slightly breathless. “Speaking of the Yaegers. I was supposed to invite you to family dinner.”
Emerson’s eyebrows rose.
“Like, tonight?”
“Yeah.” Luca checked the time on his phone. “In, um. Like, forty-five minutes? But I can tell my mom you can’t; I know you’ve had a long day, and—”
“Do not”—Emerson kissed him—“say no to Leah on my behalf.” Another kiss. “Ever.”
“You might”—Luca’s breath hitched as Emerson moved to his neck—“regret that one day.”
Emerson disagreed. But he didn’t say anything. He just smiled into Luca’s skin before tugging his ear with his teeth.
They drove over together in Luca’s car.
Emerson could tell Luca was embarrassed, swiping trash off the passenger seat to make room for him, but Emerson was thrilled.
As he’d been thrilled ever since he’d seen this car back in his driveway again.
He’d never been inside it before. He suddenly wanted to be inside all the places he’d never been, ask all the questions of Luca he was too dumb and selfish to ask when they’d pretended they were only fucking.
So when Luca started the engine and the car remained quiet, Emerson said, “Play some of your music. Your favorite album.”
Luca glanced at him before wordlessly shuffling through his phone.
They listened without talking the whole drive, Emerson trying not to stare at Luca too hard.
Because while Emerson always had to sit close to the wheel with his short legs, of course Luca drove in that dude way, all laid back and sexy, and it made Emerson want to do things he shouldn’t be thinking about on the way to Luca’s parents’ house.
When they arrived in front of a deep red two-story home, set in the middle of a steep hill behind Greyfin Bay’s downtown, Luca cut the engine and asked, “Did you like it?”
And even though Emerson knew it was the kind of music he wouldn’t listen to every day, he nodded, honestly. “Made me feel kind of hype and calm all at once.”
“Yeah,” Luca said. “That’s exactly it.”
Looking out the window at the house in front of them, Emerson added, “So probably the perfect thing to listen to before meeting my boyfriend’s family.”